Hermione Thompson, assistant editor at Hamish Hamilton, bought world rights to the title in a pre-empt from Becky Thomas at Johnson & Alcock, to publish in Spring 2019.

Supper Club follows a secret society of women who refuse to suppress their appetites any longer, holding wild, all-night feasts to reclaim their hunger and their bodies. And at the centre of the Supper Club is Roberta – cynical yet anxious, precocious and lost – seeking the answer to a simple question. If you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into?

Thompson said she "could not be more proud" to be publishing "this essential coming-of-age story for our times."

"Lara writes about young womanhood as the real women I know have actually experienced it", said Thompson. "Supper Club is absolutely a novel about food: its rich, visceral physicality and its complex psychological resonances. But it is also about the many other kinds of appetite that our society denies, the many ways we are told not to take up space. And above all it is about the intense friendships of youth, which can flare up and fade away so quickly, leaving us changed forever. Lara’s writing is devastatingly perceptive and savagely funny; I could not be more proud to publish this essential coming-of-age story for our times."

Williams added: "It is beyond a dream to be signed with Hamish Hamilton. I absolutely love Hermione's ideas for the novel, and can't wait to work with her and see it take shape."

Williams is the author of a short story collection, Treats (Freight Books), published as A Selfie As Big As the Ritz in the US (Flatiron), which was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Edinburgh First Book Award, the Saboteur Awards and longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. She has written for the Guardian, the New Scientist, the Times Literary Supplement, the Debrief, Vice, Grazia and SomeSuch Stories, among others.

We are so delighted that Kate Tempest has won the Best Breakthrough Author category at the Books Are My Bag Awards, for The Bricks That Built the Houses (Bloomsbury). The award is chosen by booksellers and voted for by readers.

We are thrilled to announce that Jenny Landreth's book Swell has made the William Hill shortlist.

"The stories behind sporting pioneers, legendary sporting figures and the secrets of Bradford Park Avenue football ground are all revealed on the shortlist for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award – the world’s richest and longest-running prize for sports writing. The diverse seven-strong shortlist encompasses swimming, football, cycling, boxing and horse racing and is united by the rich history running through its titles.

Extraordinary accounts of struggle, empowerment and indomitable spirit loom large in these narratives: Jenny Landreth’s Swell: A Waterbiography is both personal watery memoir and homage to the fearless ‘swimming suffragettes’ who fought for women to have equal rights and access to swim."

Chairman of Judges and co-founder of the Award, Graham Sharpe, said:

“Creating a shortlist from a Bookie Prize longlist has never been less than a mind-scrambling task. However, such is the nature of prizes that where there is delight there must elsewhere be disappointment, and the expert panel was enthralled by the final shortlist.

“Never have we created a list including a dead-man walking, let alone riding; never had we even heard of a ‘waterbiography’, let alone a tide-turning tale of swimming emancipation. Football archaeology ever featuring as the theme would have been at least a 50/1 shot. Then there’s the previously unknown, almost miraculous tale of Holocaust survival up against the now legendary story of a British cycling superstar who died during a race, and whose reputation is enhanced every time a Chris Boardman, Chris Hoy, or Chris Froome triumph comes along. And then there is perhaps the ultimate contrast, between one of British football's quietest and most modest over-achievers who virtually hid his light under a bushel, and world sport's loudest and greatest practitioner, whose finest, quietest moment was when he fought his body's unfamiliar frailty to light the Olympic flame.”

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is the world's longest established and most valuable literary sports-writing prize. As well as a £29,000 cheque, this year’s winning author will receive a free £2,500 William Hill bet, and a day at the races*.

The winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2017 will be announced at an afternoon reception at BAFTA, in central London, on Tuesday 28th November.

Kate Tempest's novel The Bricks That Built The Houses (Bloomsbury) is nominated in the Best Breakthrough Author Category of the The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards.

They're the only book awards with shortlists curated by bookshops - and the only major awards voted for by book lovers. Returning for a second year, the awards now include two new categories for books written for younger readers, alongside six adult categories. Seven of the shortlists were chosen by booksellers across the UK and Ireland: Popular Fiction, Novel, Non-Fiction, Middle Grade (7-11), Young Adult (12-18), Breakthrough Author and Beautiful Book. The Readers Choice Award – nominated and voted for entirely by booklovers – completes the set.

We are delighted that Jenny Landreth's book Swell: A Waterbiography (Bloomsbury) is one of five books on the William Hill longlist authored by women, with a total of nine female authors and co-authors – by far the highest number to have been nominated in the Award’s history.

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is the world's longest established and most valuable literary sports-writing prize. As well as a £29,000 cash prize, this year’s winning author will receive a free £2,500 William Hill bet, and a day at the races. The shortlist will be announced on 24th October 2017. The winner will be announced at an afternoon reception at BAFTA, in central London, on Tuesday 28th November. Good luck, Jenny!

Virago has acquired a graphic novel as part of a strategy to begin publishing the genre on its list for the first time.

Eve by Una, is the story of a mother and daughter struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

Savitt acquired world all languages rights to publish the second book, Eve, by the Yorkshire-based artist, academic and comics creator known solely as Una from Becky Thomas at Johnson & Alcock. The dystopia is said to have "provocative parallels with our current political reality", exploring themes of motherhood, community and survival. Una is also the author of graphic memoir Becoming/ Unbecoming which was published by Myriad in the UK and was chosen as one of Oprah.com’s Best Memoirs of 2016. Virago will publish Eve in 2020.

Savitt said: "Some of the most original graphic novelists working today are women, so it feels fitting and thrilling that Virago will launch a boutique graphic novel strand in 2018. I can’t think of a more perfect artist to inaugurate this new venture. I loved Una’s heart-stopping memoir Becoming/ Unbecoming, which has been embraced by so many readers around the world as a devastating exploration of gender-based violence as well as a startlingly beautiful graphic book; so I am proud to be publishing her second book, which promises to be just as inventive, gorgeous and thought-provoking."

Johnson & Alcock is a well-established and dynamic literary agency representing a diverse list of authors. We are looking for an intern to join us at our offices in Bloomsbury for 3 months from September 2017. This is a paid internship and an excellent opportunity for someone keen to work in publishing, to learn more about how the industry works and to meet lots of publishing folk.

We are looking for someone who is a voracious reader, organised and reliable as well a strong communicator. The role will involve providing support to the agents, helping prepare our foreign rights list, inputting contracts and info on to our database and writing reports on manuscripts.

Please send a covering letter and CV to Ed Wilson on ed@johnsonandalcock.co.uk by the end of Thursday 10th August. Please also indicate the dates you are available. If selected you will be expected to commit to the whole period of the internship.

Writer and performance poet Hollie McNish has won 2016's £5,000 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for her poetic memoir about becoming a parent, Nobody Told Me (Blackfriars, an imprint of Little, Brown).

McNish was announced the winner of the award, funded by Carol Ann Duffy from her honararium as Poet Laureate, at a ceremony at the Savile Club in Mayfair yesterday (29th March).

The Poetry Society’s Ted Hughes award judges, award-winning poets Jo Bell and Bernard O’Donoghue and singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams, praised McNish's "funny and serious, humane and consciousness-raising" work for its "vivid language", its ability to "put things that most people ignore right back in the spotlight" and for "skilfully tackl[ing] hidden agendas and political issues in our society".

One of the judges, Bell, said the collection had changed the way he thinks about women and should be compulsory reading for new parents. Taken from the author's personal diaries, it blends poetry and storytelling following McNish through pregnancy to her first pre-school drop off.

"Adrian Mitchell said that 'most poetry ignores most people' but Hollie’s book puts things that most people ignore right back in the spotlight," said Bell. "This book is more than the sum of its parts, combining the immediacy of a diary with straight talking poetry from a spoken word tradition. This book is funny and serious, humane and consciousness-raising: it changed the way I think about women (and I am one). Should be given to every new parent, and handed to them along with their baby-care products."

Williams said the collection would "resonate outside the poetry world to reach a new generation of poetry readers" and praised it for tackling issues such as public breast-feeding, non-waged care work and interracial relationships.

O’Donoghue, who last year was shortlisted for the TS Elliot Prize, added of McNish's work: "Hollie McNish describes the experience of pregnancy and young motherhood in a vivid language that brings both forms to life, and makes them real for readers to whom these things are new as well as those to whom they are familiar."

McNish's new collection, Plum, will publish in June 2017 with Picador. She has previously written two other collections, Papers (Greenwich Exchange) and Cherry Pie (Burning Eye Books) and co-wrote the play Offside (Bloomsbury).

Grant, who used to front American indie band The Czars, rose to fame in 2010 with his debut solo album, "Queen of Denmark". In the book, he will not only tell the story of his career but of his "extraordinary" life.

Editor-in-chief Antonia Hodgson acquired world rights at auction from Becky Thomas of Johnson & Alcock, on behalf of Showpony Management.

Grant said: "Flying in the face of all reason and good judgement, Little, Brown is giving me the opportunity to write a book about my experiences in life thus far. It is the tale of a lower-middle-class homosexual humanoid male musician, addict, chronically depressed language enthusiast and underachiever who, in spite of himself, is learning to enjoy life, make sense of relationships and become an adult. Perhaps this is the cure for insomnia you've been searching for."

Hodgson said: "I’m a huge fan of John Grant’s music, but had no idea just how extraordinary his life has been. It is a story of family, alienation, masculinity, self-destruction, survival, the creative spirit – and told with such wit and honesty it moved everyone here who read the proposal. His voice on the page is just as unique and intimate as his music – you are drawn straight into his world. And what a large, compassionate, fascinating world it is."

Gillies, who most recently coined the popular Donald Trump nickname "Wotsit Hitler" as @TechnicallyRon on twitter, has written for and been featured in a range of publications, including Buzzfeed, the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Huffington Post.

While there are many books on surviving a zombie apocolaypse or nuclear war, Gillies wanted to write book about how it is to feel like the world is ending every single time you wake up. This, he explains, is what having anxiety is like, and his book The Anxiety Survival Guide aims to help readers by exploring the "tools to fight back", whether medication, therapy, CBT, coping techniques - "or simply a dark sense of humour".

Hewson said: "I have loved Aaron’s tweets on his battles with his brain for ages, and they always resonate far and wide. I think this is a much-wanted and needed book – something which captures the ridiculousness as well as the struggle of anxiety, and which, all comedy aside, will genuinely help people."

Gillies book continues the trend seeing an increase in publishing on mental health issues that publishers last year said reflected cultural change. But Gillies said there was still "a long way to go" until mental health was taken seriously enough.

He said: "Whilst the conversation about normalising mental health issues has begun, there is a long way to go, and anxiety can be brushed off as a lesser cause. My writing background is comedy, and I want to bring this to conversations around mental health, and to discuss anxiety in a healthy, informative and humorous way."

Sphere has acquired Departures, a book about exploring the world as a woman traveller, by journalist and travel writer Anna Hart.

Commissioning editor Rhiannon Smith acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in the book from Becky Thomas at Johnson and Alcock.

In Departures, drawing on 10 years experience of travel writing, Hart will write about the highs and lows travelling alone as a woman, showing that even the experts get it wrong (sometimes) and how to get it right.

Smith said: "I love Anna’s writing, and through our discussions I was completely convinced that her insight and humour would make for a wonderful book. Anna’s experience is second to none – there’s no-one better to navigate through the peril and pitfalls, as well as the incredible highs and independence that travel can bring. I’m so looking forward to sharing Departures with readers."

Hart, who is currently travel editor at Stylist magazine, said: "This feels like the perfect time to write about the highs and lows of travel, roaming the world as a solo female and what adventure means in 2018. I’m completely thrilled that Rhiannon and Sphere are publishing Departures, truly the perfect publishers."

We're very excited that Tom Watkins' memoir Let's Make Lots of Money: Secrets of a Rich, Fat, Gay, Lucky Bastard has made the Penderyn Music Book Prize Longlist. Tom will be up against the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Marr.

Judging the 2017 award will be comedian and musican Stewart Lee; singer Charlotte Church; joint m.d. at Rough Trade, Geoff Travis; singer and writer Tracey Thorn; musician Eliza Carthy; musician and former singer and guitarist of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore; and Jane Beese, head of music at the Roundhouse.

Thorn said: “I’m looking forward to judging this prize, which shines a light on great music writing - a genre that often gets overlooked. It’s a strong and varied long list, with a good range of different voices and different perspectives.”

The shortlist will be announced in early March and the winner will be revealed at the Laugharne Weekend Festival on 9th April 2017.

With great sadness the death of William Trevor, KBE, one of the great fiction writers of our time, was announced on Monday 20th November.

Born as William Trevor Cox in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland in 1928, William Trevor was educated at St. Columba's College in Dublin. After graduating in history from Trinity College, Dublin, Trevor married Jane Ryan whom he’d met at university and to whom he dedicated many of his books and the couple moved to England where Trevor set himself up as a sculptor ‘rather like Jude the Obscure without the talent’ as he once described himself. The first of two sons was born in London where Trevor got a job as copywriter and it was only when he took a full-time job at a London advertising agency that he really began writing. His first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, which he subsequently disowned and refused to have republished, came out in 1958. In later years he chose to describe The Old Boys, which was published in 1964 and went on to win the Hawthornden Prize for Literature, as his first novel. In its comedic portrayal of unseemly, sometimes desperate behaviour hidden beneath a thin veil of decorum, it prefigured the theme of most of his early and middle-period novels, many of them set in a rundown, post-War London. Later he turned his attention to his native Ireland, and in particular the tensions between the fading Anglo-Irish gentry and their Catholic neighbours. These were more complex books, exploring ideas of loyalty and betrayal, loss and belonging, often through multiple viewpoints, but always with a deeply felt compassion for all his characters.

Trevor went on to write over fifteen novels, which were garlanded with awards: he won the Whitbread Prize three times and was short-listed for the Booker Prize four times, most recently with The Story of Lucy Gault in 2002, which was a favourite for the Prize but lost out to The Life of Pi. Trevor’s novels are widely admired but it is perhaps on his short stories that his literary reputation will come to rest. For many years a contributor of stories to the New Yorker, he had a firm belief that the short story was as great an art form as the novel, and as difficult to write. His Collected Stories, published by Viking in two volumes in 2009, runs to almost 2000 pages, and the best of them, including ‘The Ballroom of Romance’, ‘Kathleen’s Field’ and ‘Cheating at Canasta’, are among the greatest stories of the last half-century, drawing comparison with the earlier masters of the form, Chekhov, Maupassant and Joyce.

A modest and private man, Trevor disliked talking about his books and abhorred any personal publicity, believing that the work should stand for itself. He lived for many years in a secluded house in Devon, visiting Ireland frequently, taking walking holidays in Italy, and pursuing his passions of gardening and watching sport – especially rugby, cricket and tennis. But it was writing that truly absorbed him.

Andrew Hewson, Chairman of J&A gave the following statement:

"William Trevor was an early client of our agency's founder John Johnson. John fostered the close links with his then editor, James Michie at the Bodley Head, and introduced William to Peter Matson at the Sterling Lord Agency in New York, who remained his American agent all his life.

"There followed a sequence of critically acclaimed novels from The Old Boys to Children of Dynmouth, three anthologies of award winning short stories, and a series of some of the most outstanding single plays commissioned by the BBC, ATV and Anglia Television. These combined to install William Trevor as a true Master of the English language, a standing he was to sustain without pause.

"On John Johnson's retirement William became a client of the inestimable Pat Kavanagh at A.D. Peters, later PFD, but in a typically generous gesture he asked that John Johnson Ltd, and later Johnson & Alcock, continued to represent the back list. To our great pleasure the association was renewed in 2008, and we oversaw the republication of all of his early works, continued international success, and the publication of his Collected Stories, one of his most lasting contributions to the canon of literature.

"This agency looks back with great fondness over many years of friendship, and looks forward to safeguarding the legacy of this great man's life's work, as takes its rightful and honoured place at the forefront of modern literature."

On 1st June the winners of the 2016 Cross Sports Book Awards will be announced at a ceremony held at Lords Cricket Ground in London. Emily Bullock's beautiful and brutal debut, THE LONGEST FIGHT, set in the gritty world of 1950s boxing, is shortlisted in the New Writer of the Year category and we'll be keeping our fingers crossed! An Independent on Sunday book of the year, where it was described as 'a fine addition to the canon of boxing literature', THE LONGEST FIGHT has most recently been reviewed by the Historical Novel Society: 'In her story about redemption and hope, Bullock's writing is as taut as the fighters in her ring'.

THE LONGEST FIGHT was inspired by Emily's boxing grandfather and she writes about how this fed into her experience of becoming a writer, in an essay for Bookanista. Emily will appear on BBC Radio 4's Open Book this summer to explore the enduring appeal of the boxing hero in fiction today. Myriad holds World English rights to THE LONGEST FIGHT: translation, film/TV and all other rights are with Ed Wilson at Johnson & Alcock.

Kate Tempest’s debut novel, The Bricks That Built the Houses (Bloomsbury), was published on April 7th and hit the Sunday Times Bestseller List at number 9 and then number 8.

Next week it will be BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime, starting at 10.45pm on the 23rd May.

Kate continues to tour the world promoting it. Having completed the UK and US tours, she is now in Australia where she gave the opening address at the Sydney Writer’s Festival. Sydney Morning Herald and ABC

We’re delighted to award the Margaret Hewson Prize 2015 to Anthea Morrison. Her short story, You Have What You Want about a new mother’s midnight riverside stroll won over all the judges with its clear, spare prose and powerful description of a woman’s altered state of mind.

The Prize is open to all students on the Creative Writing MA at Royal Holloway – it aims to recognize and encourage new writing talent, and to commemorate Johnson & Alcock agent Margaret Hewson and her unique contribution to the publishing world.

ITV’s new thriller about a country vicar who’s an exorcist, based on the books by Phil Rickman, also stars David Threfall and Siobhan Finneran

New three-part drama starring Anna Maxwell Martin, based on the much-loved books by Phil Rickman, and adapted by screenwriter Stephen Volk.

Maxwell Martin plays Merrily Watkins, a single mother who is also a vicar who’s trained to be an exorcist, “a job increasingly mistrusted by the modern Church and rarely talked about, and one that puts her faith and family to the test...”